I have some experience in rifle loading ( 308,7mm mag) but now I'm looking to do some pistol loading. I know that you can shoot 44 special rounds in a 44mag pistol for less recoil. But I want to know if you can load a 44 to an in between load. I'm looking for something like shooting a 38spl+P in a 357mag, more pop than the 38spl but not as much as the magnum. Any recomedation on which powder would work best for this load and slug weight. Just putting holes in paper. New to this forum, so thanks in advance.

I love the variety you can get from a 44 revolver, it is in fact one one of my favorite cartridges to handload. I load my 44 mag from 600 fps with roundball loads to 1450 with 310 gr hard cast gas checks. Hornady makes some 240 gr lead that I like to load to 45acp velocities (750fps) for fun plinking. I like hodgdon clays for ultralight lead loads. herco, bullseye or blue dot for mid power loads and h110/ww296 for the hottest loads from 180gr jhp to 310gr hard cast gc.
For what you described I would look at a medium load of bullseye and some 200 gr jhps with non magnum primers, this would be a great all around load and would be fairly lethal for most medium game with reduced recoil and blast.
Bullseye is the most accurate for both my 44 mags probably due to such low blast and recoil, plus it is very efficient and clean like clays.

__________________
"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government." --George Washington

I'm using 6.8 gr of Red Dot behind a 200 gr bullet in my .45 Colt. It's very clean and very accurate and about 920 fps. I'd think you could duplicate this load in a .44 Mag BUT check their reloading data.

I do the same as ForneyRider--231 for the light stuff (sub-900 fps), Power Pistol for the midrange (1000 - 1100 fps), and H110/296 for the full house loads.

The beauty of .44 mag is its versatility though--if you get 30 different replies in this thread you'll most likely get close to 30 completely different combinations of loads, and they're all likely to be excellent.

Any good ideas out there for the 44mag shootin from a Rossi 92 with a 24" barrel? Would like to use a slower powder to utilize the 24" barrel which should ultimately lower pressures and help extend the life of my shoulder cannon.
Thanks y'all.

I was looking for the same info a while back. I've found 10.0 gr of Unique, Starline brass, and a std large pistol primer from with a (~18-20 BHN) 240 gr lswc Mastercast bullet (Carbondale Il) is an excellent load. It's stout but not punishing and should run around 1000 fps from a 4" barrel (I don't have a chrony). It's a classic load from what I remember from researching.

Lately I've been experimenting with HP-38 the same powder as (Win-231) because I use it for 45 acp and it meters much better from my Lee Auto disc pro. I tried 8.3 gr of HP-38 with same components as above. It did not seem quite as stout as the Unique. My next trip to the range, I'm going to try around 9 gr of HP-38. I may stick with the 10 gr of unique for my favorite though, it was sweet shootin'.

I shot my Ruger Redhawk .44 mag. competitively for quite a few years and loaded tens of thousands of comfortable to shoot rounds. Just read the loading manuals and work up, or down, to the loads you like. The .44 is a very versitile round. Even using a 180 or 210 gr. hard cast lead bullet loaded to 800-900 fps you have a powerful gun.

" sfno72
44Mag load question
I have some experience in rifle loading ( 308,7mm mag) but now I'm looking to do some pistol loading. I know that you can shoot 44 special rounds in a 44mag pistol for less recoil. But I want to know if you can load a 44 to an in between load. I'm looking for something like shooting a 38spl+P in a 357mag, more pop than the 38spl but not as much as the magnum. Any recomedation on which powder would work best for this load and slug weight. Just putting holes in paper. New to this forum, so thanks in advance."

Welcome to the gab fest.

As to your question, yes.
The 44 is very versatile, as others have stated.
I load cheap and simple. My granddaughters like to shoot this load. 5.6 grains of 231 under a cast 240 grain bullet with a standard large pistol primer, all in a .44 Mag case. This give around 650 to 700 FPS (different weapons). Want more, work the load up.

I enjoy 10.9 gr of Unique pushing a 240 jsp. I see now that Alliant is recommending 10.3 gr max, but the 10.9 is very pleasant in both of my hunting handguns -- Super Redhawk, and Taurus M44 (both scoped, adding to the weight factor). They are not painful to shoot in my large hunting guns, and I have no trouble shooting off a few dozen at the range. Several deer have fallen to that load from 5 to 85 yards, but it's still pleasant enough to target shoot for fun.

I'm getting a new trail gun soon, and will be working up some even lighter loads with Unique. I will post them here. Good luck.

Few light/medium loads I found accurate. All shot out of 6 1/2" barrel .44Mag Flattop. All pleasant to shoot. All I shoot is lead.

8.5g of Unique under 240 SWC is around 1053fps (hot .44 spec Skeeter matchup)
10.0g of Unique under 240 SWC is around 1136fps (current go to load for .44Mag)
8.0g Titegroup under 240 SWC is around 1080fps
6.5 Red Dot under 240 SWC is 947fps
8.0g Red Dot under 240 SWC is 1080fps
8.0g Trail Boss under 240 SWC is 919fps

__________________
A clinger. When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns. Single Action .45 Colt (Sometimes improperly referred to by its alias as the .45 'Long' Colt or .45LC). Don't leave home without it. Ok.... the .44Spec is growing on me ... but the .45 Colt is still king.

I'll add that if you look at the SAAMI COL's for the .44 Special and .44 Mag, they are 1.615" and 1.610", respectively—the same for all practical purposes. The Magnum brass is longer to prevent accidentally chambering the higher pressure magnum rounds in a Special chamber. So unless you load the magnums a different COL, either for a long cylinder revolver like a Ruger or because a bullet has only a single crimp groove, you are looking at all listed .44 Special loads performing the same in the longer magnum cases as they do in Special cases. This means, for a given bullet weight and type seated to the same COL, you can look up Special and Magnum loads that use the same powders and just plant your powder charge somewhere in between to get middling performance.

Hornady has load data like this in their load manual using their swagged lead 180gr and 240gr boolits.The 180's are loaded to 1100 fps and the 240's are loaded to 1000 fps.I can personally vouch for the 180's in both 44 mag and spl loadings.They are accurate and very light in recoil.

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